Perfection Not Required

God encouraged Jesus as He was walking up the hill. God told Jesus that He could make it and that God was walking right beside Him as He walked each step closer.

Perfection Not Required

As I’ve talked to people over the years about accepting Christ as their Savior, I have heard all sorts of reasons why they were reluctant to even ask for forgiveness of their sins. One person believed in God as the Creator of the universe and everything it, including the fact that Jesus Himself came to earth and died for his sins. He told me that the roof would cave in on him if he ever walked in the front of a church. I told him to ask Jesus into his heart before he went to any church as the church would appreciate keeping their roof intact. That’s a true story by-the-way. The truth is that we are not required to clean ourselves before asking forgiveness of our sins.There is no Scripture that tells us that we must clean up our act and toe the line before we ask forgiveness of our sins. In fact quite the contrary, 1 John 1:9 tells us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So Jesus will cleanse us from all of our sins. It’s impossible to clean out everything from our lives. We can’t reach those kinds of corners in the basement on our own. Romans 10:9 says:”… if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”Take a look at some of the people God has used throughout the Bible to work for Him. First and foremost I always think of Paul, the author of most of the New Testament. Before he wrote all of the letters he was known as Saul. That man killed of every Christian he could find. He even held the garments of those that stoned Stephen in the book of Acts. He was traveling to a different part of the region to gather up as many Christians as he could find and kill them when God knocked him off his high horse and blinded him. The person that God told to go pray for him didn’t want any part of it as he knew who Saul was. Self preservation may have something to do with his attitude. Of course the man did go and pray for Saul and he became one of e heroes of the faith.The Disciple Peter never opened his mouth without having to move his foot out of the way. He said a lot of things to Jesus that Jesus had to deal with. He cut off the ear of one of the people that cane to arrest Jesus. He denied Jesus three times and on the third time he actually used foul language, them made eye contact with Jesus. Oh I have always felt so bad for Peter. I can only imagine the grief he felt after what had done.Moses had murdered someone before coming back to Egypt and taking the Exodus with him. Then while he was just about to get to the Promised Land he did something that prohibited him from getting there. He was allowed to see it from a mountain top, but he never got to let his toes walk through the grass.Of course we all know the story of Jonah. God told him to go to Nineveh and this joker went in the opposite direction. He was so repulsive even the fish couldn’t stomach him and spit him out. That’s just plain nasty! But Jonah repented, went to Nineveh and the town was saved from the future that was on their way, had Jonah not finally obeyed God.That’s just a few of the people that God used in the Bible who weren’t even thing close to being a Saint. God doesn’t require perfection, He only asks for a willing heart. He and Jesus have done all of the hard work needed for you to come to repentance. When Jesus died on that cross, He did for you. He did for us as mankind. He did it because of the sheer amount of love our Creator had and still has for all of mankind. He did for every country, every society, every city and town and finally, He did for you as an individual.The beating that He endured that fateful day was probably one of the most brutal ever handed out in the history of this planet. Satan himself was behind that beating and he brought everything within him to each lash on his back and each punch to Jesus’ face. He brought all of his hate and loathing to each pluck of Jesus beard. He wanted Jesus dead.As Jesus dragged that heavy cross on his shoulders, you know it took everything within His being to even take that next step. It got to the point Jesus couldn’t do it any longer and poor Simon was given the task of carrying that ugly cross the rest of the way for our Christ, the Son of the One True God.I’ve often thought of how much encouragement the Father had to give to Jesus as he moved closer to that ugly hill. “Come on Son! You can do it! I know you can! Give me ten more yards! Give me 10 more feet! Give me 10 more steps. Come on Son, the world is counting on you making it to the top of this hill! Is not much further Son, you can do it; I know you can do it! I believe in you Son! I believe in You Son! Come on Son! Let’s get this done together! I’m walking right beside you Son! Let’s go get this taken care of and give the Devil a black eyeball! Come on Son, keep going, you can do it!”God kept encouraging Jesus every step up that hill, but they both knew what was coming. As Jesus was getting more weak and more weak He knew what was coming. God knew what was coming and dreaded it completely. I can even imagine God telling Jesus “the time is coming that we both have been dreading all this time.” Then as Jesus was about to die it happened. His Heavenly Father turned His back on Him and cried out loud. God cried so loud that the earth shook and the curtain in the Synagogue ripped apart. It was the first time God and Jesus had been without the other one. But that very act of Jesus bearing our sins throughout every lash, every punch and every time He was spit on, ended with the forgiveness of our sins. I have said for decades now that three simple words, spoken with a sincere heart, is the difference between Heaven and Hell. The words “Jesus forgive me” or “Father forgive me” is all that it takes to accept Christ as your Savior. If you haven’t asked that question, this is the perfect time to do so. Your life will never be the same and your being will come alive. Your mood will improve as will your attitude towards life in general. Having a life without the heaviness of sin on your back seems to change it all. Have you ever imagined what life would look like for you if everything were to just suddenly change for you? Have you ever just sat and envisioned what a life without all of the drama and chaos would look like? How calm and relaxing a life like that could be? That life is three words away, that’s not a lot of effort is it?Jesus forgive me. Now go read that again with a sincere heart.Welcome to the family of God! Ya baby! We get to go to Heaven together now! Now that’s going to be an awesome time sitting and chatting with you! I’m looking forward to it already! But trust me; I can wait until it’s my time to go. There’s no need to hasten things before the proper time, right?See you in Heaven!!